"Boss, we need to back off these armed guards here- I do not want them in our field of view, and I do not want sympathetic fire, ok?"
"Yeah, I got it Eddie." Greg radioed to Ed, "Sierra- how's your vantage?"
"Great," I responded, "With a side of…what the hell?"
I rolled over and gazed at the alarm clock. 4:54am- ok fine.
After I got up and changed into my workout clothes, I immediately got onto the stationary bike in my room and did twenty minutes of intense cardio. When I made my way into the kitchen, I immediately went for a Gatorade to recharge with. I'll need it.
After the cardio, I went into the new part of the house on the 1st floor, were we had a miniature gym going on. Beside the treadmill was a Bowflex machine that mom had bought so she could get back into shape, and beside it, was a traditional rack of weights and barbells, which I immediately went for and started my muscular resistance training.
After my workout, I went back upstairs and took a relaxing shower, after which I dressed into my base layer of my uniform.
Then the baby woke up.
Kristina cried out, even as I entered her room. When I picked her up and held her close to my body, she seemed to calm down a bit, but she still seemed antsy.
"Hungry, eh?" I asked her, as we went out into the hallway and entered mom's room, "Hey ma, Kristina is hungry."
Jules got up, and with a smile took the baby and started to breast feed. "If only you could do this for me."
"Yeah, ok," I started, "If you need me, I'll be downstairs making some breakfast."
Breakfast. What to make for breakfast?
I rolled into the SRU parking lot at the same time that Spike did. We walked up to the door together.
"Be surprised, will you?" Spike asked.
"What?"
"You don't know?"
"Know what?" I asked.
Spike gave me a look, then darted his eyes away.
"Spike…"
"You're making Constable today. Act surprised." Spike informed, as he entered the doors and made his way into the men's locker room.
Unfazed, I went into the women's locker-room. Inside was Kiera getting changed.
"Are they still not done the renovations in the other locker room?" I asked.
I sat down on the bench and took off my shoes. Kiera came and sat down beside me, as she looked into the same section of mirror as I did.
"Did you know that I'm…different?" Kiera asked.
"What are you…" I started.
Then Kiera kissed me. And not an innocent cheek peck, but full on making out. Why? What's this all about?
But then I found myself kissing her back. Something about it felt right.
Then Kiera stopped, as she pulled back, and stood up.
"Think about it." Kiera said as she left.
'Think about it'- think about what? Being a…and Kiera is a…oh my god. Well, this explains a few things. For starters, it explains why Kiera was checking me out almost every time she could. It explained to me why she had no problems changing right in the middle of the locker room.
Wow. How am I supposed to wrap my mind around this?
I met with the rest of Team One in the weight room. I was still thinking about the sexual tension in the locker room…
"Perrasmith!"
"What?" I asked, as I came into attention and looked at Ed and Greg who were standing while, me, Spike and Brad sat down on a bench.
"Were you paying attention at all?" Ed asked.
"Ummm…"
"The proper answer would be 'no', since you've had that blank stare on your face since you sat down," Ed continued, "But I digress. Megan- can you go get the commander so we can do our monthly weigh in?"
Without any questions, I ran down the hallway and told the commander that we're ready for our weigh in.
Nothing abnormal- of course, I'm the lightest person on the team, and after the commander had said out loud that I weigh 113 pounds Spike yelled out, "Someone needs to eat more!"
After, we did the drag test- where we drag the heaviest member from side to side of the gym the commander voiced out the results.
"Team one, very impressive. Overall score of 98%- you were docked because Brad was a bit too slow on his drag recovery."
We all nagged Brad because of this.
"And to finish things up, Megan, can you come here for a moment?" the commander asked.
I walked up to him, "Yeah?"
"Welcome to SRU Constable Perrasmith." He said, as he took out a package of uniform epaulettes and passed them to me.
I smiled. I didn't have to fake the surprise.
"Thank you."
"Team one- hot call!"
"What is it Winnie?" Greg asked.
"Brinks compound in Mississauga- a man is threatening to kill his wife if they don't give him $40,000."
Once we got there, we got out of the trucks, and followed Ed's direction.
"Megan- get a rifle and setup a Sierra. Spike- help her find a location for that. Me and Brad will be alpha- quick and slow and gather intel. Boss- you want to do your thing?"
"Do I ever Eddie." Greg replied, as I grabbed a Remington 700 Tactical from the rear of the truck.
"Alright, Megan," Spike guided me, "See a radio tower?"
"Yes I do."
"Climb it- there is a platform about half the way up- it's going to be a perfect spot for a Sierra shot."
"Spike," came Greg's voice over the radio, "I got a vehicle plate for you."
Greg and Spike continued talking over the radio, but I really wasn't listening. I made my way up to the radio tower and climbed up, and found he platform. Once there, I secured myself to the framing by using a simple rope harness and an industrial lanyard.
Once I had that setup, I laid down on the platform and found my target.
"Sierra one in position." I relayed, "Ed- the suspect is approximately 50 feet to your north flank. There's a solid low wall that you can cover behind."
"Copy that Sierra." Ed thanked over the radio.
"Starting negotiations over the loudspeaker- pay attention." Greg radioed, "Sir- my name is Sargent Gregory Parker with the Police Strategic Response Unit. What is your name?"
"Like you care!" he yelled back.
"Boss, we got the armed guards converging on the subject." I voiced, "Ed and Brad, I suggest containment on the guards."
"We'll do our best."
"Cross-referenced a snap shot from the exterior CCTV to the DMV database," Spike radioed, "Our subject is Patrick Bennett, 34 years of age, works with- hold onto your hardhats people, because this might make your head roll…"
"Spike, cut to the chase." I replied.
"He works for Brinks. Accessing his employee file- married to a Sara Bennett. Age unknown."
"Patrick- why don't you tell me why I'm here?" Greg asked him.
"You're here because they won't give me the money! Did you know, that in a stick up, they're trained to give the money?"
"I did know that, Patrick." Greg replied, "But did you know what once said suspect attempts to flee with said money, they're also trained to shoot a person?"
"I train them!" Patrick yelled, "Of course I do!"
"Then why are you doing this Pat? Can I call you Pat?"
"You can call me whatever you want!"
"Ok Pat- you mind telling me why you're threatening to kill your wife if you don't get the money?"
"Sara Bennett-" Spike filled in, "Recently did time in an addictions clinic. Not for drugs, but for gambling."
"Wife gets back into gambling, lost all the money, and now he's trying to piece his life back together using her as a bargaining chip, and when they don't pay up, or when he doesn't need her anymore, he kills her." I said, piecing the information together.
"Let's hope he doesn't get that far." Greg said, "Spike, look into the psychiatric records of Patrick Bennett, see if there's anything there."
"Might not be any records." Spike suggested, "But I'll look."
"Alright, here's what I'm thinking here." Ed said, "I got all the armed guards that I could find out of range…."
"Not all of them Ed," I said, as I used the binoculars to scan the area, "There's a team of guards in the 2nd armored truck on the south side, and they look like they're preparing themselves."
"For what?"
"Ed, if I knew that, don't you think I'd tell you?"
"Good point." Ed said, "Boss, we need to back off these armed guards here- I do not want them in our field of view, and I do not want sympathetic fire, ok?"
"Yeah, I got it Eddie." Greg radioed to Ed, "Sierra- how's your vantage?"
"Great," I responded, "With a side of…what the hell?"
"Sierra- what do you see?" Ed asked.
"Boss, you seeing this?" I asked.
"Seeing what?" Ed asked again.
"Yeah, copy that Sierra." Greg responded, "Eddie, Patrick's blindfolding his wife. He doesn't want to have to kill her. He's dehumanizing her, so when the time comes, he'll be able to."
"Boss-", I radioed, "Something makes me think he never wanted the money. He wanted an out. He figures that he can't live with his wife having a gambling problem, but he doesn't have the stones to actually leave her, so he brought her out here where either he'll end up killing her, removing her from his life, or he gets shot and killed, so he won't have to live with her."
"That's sad and sick at the same time." Spike commented.
"That could be the case here Team," Greg said, "So listen up- Eddie, Brad, go less lethal and attempt to take Patrick into custody. Sierra, stay lethal- if I give you the command, I want you to take it, ok?"
I nodded, but then I realized Greg couldn't see me nodding.
"Copy that."
"Alpha team moving in." Ed said, as him and Brad jumped over the wall.
Ed immediately went to secure Sara- the wife, while Brad brought up his taser and pointed it at Patrick.
"Sara Bennett in custody." Ed said, as he looked up to the Patrick-Brad standoff.
I saw Patrick's gun rise up, with the muzzle pointed in Brad's direction.
"Boss, you need to give the order." Ed stated.
"No, he's bluffing Ed." Greg replied, "He's not going to shoot."
"Boss, he has a gun pointed at Brad, you need to do it."
"Eddie…"
Ed spoke into the headset, "Constable Brad Mattice in critical danger, as Team Leader, I'm calling Scorpio."
That order was all I needed.
My scope reticle was already lined up. Without hesitation, I pulled the crisp, light trigger and landed my shot.
Inspector Stainton, and his newly appointed detective was on scene. I had already climbed down the tower, and as they approached me, I removed the magazine from the rifle, and the empty cartridge and passed the weapon to the detective.
"Constable Megan Perrasmith," the detective said, "You are now sequestered until the SIU examination at the SRU headquarters."
I nodded.
I became confused though, when Inspector Stainton put a hand on my wrist and placed it into a pair of handcuffs.
"Constable Megan Perrasmith, you are under arrest." The inspector said, as he started to continue, but couldn't as the Team had raced over and started yelling at the inspector.
"Hey- what's going on?" Spike yelled.
"Inspector- mind sharing your thoughts?" were Greg's words.
Brad stood back, baffled at the scene, while Ed came forward and muttered into my ear, "It'll be ok."
The rest of the scene seemed to be just a blur, as I was put into the police cruiser and driven to the SRU Station.
Once at the station, the detective escorted me down to conference room four, where my lawyer, Emily Makinson and the SIU inspector sat waiting.
Emily immediately stood up when she saw that I was in handcuffs. "Why is my client in cuffs?" she demanded.
"She's under arrest." The detective explained, "I'm under court order to keep the cuffs on until she can be seen in front of a judge."
Emily stared at the detective, "Then we're going to be here for a while, because I will not allow this proceeding to continue if my client is going to be treated like a criminal. She did nothing wrong at the call, detective- mind telling me what the arrest is all about?"
"She's under a courthouse arrest for a failure to appear in court at the parole hearing of Sam Braddock."
"And that had to be done publicly?" Emily said angrily, "I'm going to the commander about this."
Emily stormed out, leaving the room, as what I can assume was an attempt to understand the situation at hand, because lord knew that I didn't.
A few minutes later Emily came back with the Commander, who immediately came behind me and used his cuff key to uncuff me.
"Hey, you can't do that." The detective said.
"Yes, I can, and I did," the commander said to the detective, "Because Constable Perrasmith's legal case with Sam Braddock is not in question at this examination."
Once the commander and the detective left, we all sat down and started the proceeding.
"Interesting turn of events here, eh?" the SIU inspector asked, "So the call was pretty much by the book, not too much to discuss, except for some questions I have."
"Go ahead." I urged her on.
"Why did Team Leader Ed Lane give the Scorpio command, instead of Sargent Greg Parker?"
"My Sargent had reason to believe that the person in question- Patrick Bennett was bluffing."
"Why would he have been bluffing?"
"Suicide by cop." I explained, "I'm sure you know what that is."
"Ok, that's all I need Mrs. Perrasmith." The inspector said, "Your sequester is nullified. I hope your legal proceedings fare well."
Once I stepped out of the conference room, the detective stood there waiting with his cuffs.
"Do you really?" I asked.
"Court order."
He put the cuffs on me, but he spared me the dignity and he draped my coat over my wrists to hide the cuffs as we walked out of the building and into his waiting police cruiser.
He drove down to the courthouse. Once there, he escorted me into Court Room One.
"Megan Perrasmith is here, your honor." He announced.
"Finally." He said, "The case of Sam Braddock applying for parole is in session."
I looked over to a bench, where Sam was seated with two Corrections officers on either side of him.
"Your honor," I said, as I stood, "May the bailiff approach and remove my handcuffs?"
The judge nodded, as the bailiff approached me and removed the black anodized handcuffs from my wrists.
"Megan Perrasmith," the judge started.
"Actually, your honor, it is Officer Megan Perrasmith now."
"Officer Megan Perrasmith," the judge corrected, "The reason why this parole hearing is being held here today is due to the sensitive nature surrounding the case in which landed Mr. Sam Braddock in prison. Is it true that when he assaulted you, he was not an SRU Officer?"
"That is true."
"Is it true that when you were assaulted that you were a member of the SRU Rover Crew?"
"Yes."
"As well as, in the months after your assault, that your father was killed in the line of duty?"
"Yes."
"Two questions for you today Officer Perrasmith: If the parole to Sam Braddock is granted, would you fear for your own safety? As well, in your opinion, which will be presented as hearsay evidence only- should the court grant parole to Mr. Braddock?"
"Yes, your honor, I would fear for my safety in the event of Mr. Braddock receiving parole. In fact, if it is granted, I will most likely apply for a restraining order and an authorization from my commander for concealed off-duty carry. As well, it is my opinion that Sam Braddock should not be granted parole."
"Thank you Mrs. Perrasmith." The judge replied, "The court will review this file, and will inform you with the result."